Subject: California

• Raw Milk: Playing Russian Roulette With Your Health, With Sylvester Stallone?

  October 26, 2007

• Wildfires Spur Global Avocado Shortage, Or Maybe Not?

  October 31, 2007

• Raw Milk: Playing Russian Roulette With Your Health, With Sylvester Stallone?

  October 26, 2007

• Wildfires Spur Global Avocado Shortage, Or Maybe Not?

  October 31, 2007

• Sunday Matinee: Native California Film Fest at Roxie

  December 9, 2007

• Ding-Dong! Who Is It? EARTHQUAKE! ... Could Alarm's Ring Reveal Quakes?

  December 20, 2007

• California — Only the 8th Worst Place To Be Black

  February 13, 2008

• Rumor Mill: Historic Day For Gay Marriage in May?

  April 16, 2008

• Local Rapper Wins Award For Being Patient

  August 13, 2008

• Largest Tasting of California Wines in the World!

  August 25, 2008

• Top 10 Protest Signs at No on 8 March

  November 9, 2008

• Theatre Rhinoceros Secedes from State of California

  Say what?!! Theatre Rhinoceros (a.k.a. the "oldest queer theater in America") is so disappointed in the way California voted on Prop. 8 that its mainstage is seceding from the state. And you're all invited to the freebie secession party tomorrow night. Executive Director John Fisher writes: For thirty-one years our Mainstage has been a space of hallowed ground for Same-sex couples and it cannot continue as such if it does not recognize Same-sex Marriage. In recognition of the thousands of queer

  November 20, 2008

• Do Gay Rights Have a Future Outside of California? Do We Care?

  By Benjamin Wachs Although it’s easy to get lost in the fact that California voters recently decided to put discrimination in the state constitution, a little perspective is in order: gay couples in California still have (almost) full equality under the law, with provisions for civil unions, adoption, and other rights that aren’t going anywhere. That’s still a rarity. Most states in the U.S. don’t recognize gay civil unions, let alone gay marriage. Where the battle in California is

  November 21, 2008

• Marriage Equality Non-Profit Publishes Stories of Psychological Fallout from Prop 8

    Since Proposition 8 passed, Marriage Equality USA, an Oakland-based non-profit, has been surveying people online and around California about the effects of the initiative's campaign on their lives. Today, MEUSA published a report entitled, "Prop 8 Hurt My Family -- Ask me How," which documents the verbal abuse, homophobia, physical harm, and discrimination people reported as a result of the campaign. Some children with gay parents expressed fears that they could be

  January 12, 2009

• Cheap Wines That Don't Suck: Blason Cabernet Franc

  This delicious $9.99 wine pairs well with a wide variety of foods including pizza, pasta, poultry, and meat.

  January 22, 2009

• How to Sell Marriage Equality

  June 3, 2009

• Tour of California Explained: Cycling ValHella

  Part III of our explainer of California's new favorite sporting event. Read Part II here, and Part I here. Q. In  your installment about Tuesday's stage victor, Norseman Thor Hushovd, you said bike racing's low-impact training meant fewer injuries and greater athleticism. So is cycling a sportsman's Valhalla?A. It's not. Unless you believe Odin rules a place where Einherjar are always on the verge of sickness, walk with great pain, live in constant risk of calamitous trauma, lurch from unhealt

  February 18, 2009

• Leno Says He'll Have Measure on Ballot to Kill 2/3 Threshold for State Budget Votes By 2010

  Sen. Mark LenoMark Leno just told SF Weekly he's slept two hours out of the past 48 and he may or may not be hallucinating. He's tired, he's angry, and he's about to cash in some of his political connections and kick start a fund-raising drive to ensure it never happens again. The San Francisco State Senator said he will soon hold a series of meetings with both labor and business interests to raise the serious money it will take to gather signatures and craft legislation so a ballot measure can

  February 19, 2009

• California Nightmare: 'Urbanologist' Labels S.F. 'Ground Zero For California Narcissism'

  Are ghost towns the wave of the future for California? They may be, if a certain 'empty suit' wins the Governor's raceJoel Kotkin is SF Weekly's favorite urbanologist -- you can read the short series he helped us with about the transformation of San Francisco into an "adult Disneyland" here and here. But his latest piece in Newsweek was not fun to read in the same way The Pianist was not fun to watch. That's not to say it was bad -- but an article about how California has hit rock bottom and sta

  February 24, 2009

• Wanna Redraw the Lines on State District Maps? Would the Term '-Mander' Go Well After Your Name? Here's How to Get Involved.

  Ole Erekson, engraver. C. 1876, Library of CongressElbridge Gerry, the original scheming district-drawer. Are you worthy to inherit his mantle?If not for being the most famous man ever criticized for redistricting his home state to screw his political opponents, who would ever remember the particulars about Elgridge Gerry? If you don't believe us, click here for a list of all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence. Only a couple of names of the small-time founding fathers jump out

  February 26, 2009

• Britain Survived the Blitz, But Can it Take Bowdlerized San Francisco?

  If California is now a role model for Britain -- well, God Save the QueenIn the faded English coastal resort town of Blackpool, there's a restaurant three blocks off the shore called West Coast Rock that specializes in California cuisine as a blinkered Brit might imagine. When my wife and I visited a few years ago the house specialty consisted of a platter of tacos and chicken wings that tasted as if they'd been in the freezer since the time William the Conquerer. According to the British

  March 6, 2009

• Roll Play: Tataki's Early Bird

  Tataki (2815 California) prides itself on the sustainable seafood it uses for its sushi and sashimi, but one of the most intriguing rolls on the menu is actually made with meat. The Early Bird ($12) has crunchy asparagus and avocado on the inside and blowtorched filet mignon with pineapple and chile sauce on the outside. I had to remind myself repeatedly not to scarf down this sweet-hot treat too quickly.

  March 10, 2009

• Global Pantry: Chestnut Honey

  Funky, bitter, slightly smoky, not very sweet: an eminently acquirable taste.

  March 8, 2009

• It May Not Be Trendy, But Berkeley's Cheeseboard Does Pizza Right

  aloveletteraway via FlickrThe essence of CaliAs for the pizza wars of the Bay Area, our attitude is, Flame on! Let us just go on record as saying that the apotheosis of all that is great about California's big, sloppy love affair with Italian and Mexican cuisines is evident in the corn, cilantro, cotija, and lime pizza at the Cheeseboard Pizza Collective (1512 Shattuck at Vine, Berkeley). Delfina may try, Pauline's may try, Little Star may try, but nothing beats sitting on the grassy median in t

  May 29, 2009

• Gay Iowan Transplants to California Ponder Today's Gay Marriage Ruling

  They are a rare species, these gay Iowans who have moved out to the Golden State, the perfect journalistic formula to comment on today's news of the Iowa Supreme Court approving gay marriage while its California colleagues mull this same issue. But we put on our intrepid reporter cap and found two such individuals. (Actually, it turned out to be extremely easy, seeing that this reporter hails from Iowa herself.)Neither transplanted Iowan said that he or she was planning a wedding on the Bridges

  April 3, 2009

• Five places to eat oysters in San Francisco

  February 11, 2009

• We're Good Sports

  February 4, 2009

• Track of the Day: Unagi

  Local hip-hop producer Unagi is one slippery fella. His warm California beats and cool jazz grooves are smoother than cocoa butter left in the sunshine. He's been not so quietly releasing albums that play on his eely moniker for a while now, and as he preps for the latest batch of up-beats and velvety rhymes, Reinventing the Eel, you can sample a couple tight tracks from his Web site. "Grown Man Flowin" featuring Motion Man, is a particularly great track-- it's pure summer anthem material, mixin

  April 15, 2009

• Whipped and Gagged

  April 22, 2009

• First Proposition, Then Conception

  Take the initiative on the sticky question of parental notification

  November 2, 2005

• Five Best Pizza Parlors

  May 11, 2005

• What Is It Good For?

  Oakland broods over Vietnam

  August 25, 2004

• Best Chin-Stroker

  Bruce Cain

  May 19, 2004

• Building Up California

  A high-rise condo boom in San Diego may show the way out of a statewide housing and sprawl problem

  May 5, 2004

• Son of Super Swindler

  The unsettling link between a group of firms that sell financial planning services to elderly Californians and one of the most notorious con men in U.S. history

  September 10, 2003

• Recalling Reagan

  In trying to remove Gov. Ronald Reagan from office, liberal activists spawned the Davis recall and a host of other political ills

  August 27, 2003

• Club-Hopping

  Bridging the distance between San Francisco's many book groups

  July 31, 2002

• State Senate Committee Moves to Allow Toxic Waste In County Dumps

  Thanks, Ma: Toxic waste from old cars is still hunky dory in California The California Senate's Environmental Quality Committee today unanimously approved a bill that would block environmental officials from preventing 700,000 tons of toxic waste from being dumped into county landfills each year. As reported in SF Weekly, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control last fall proposed rules that would end a 20-year-old policy of allowing residue from automobile recycling plants to be dumped

  April 27, 2009

• Forbes: Quashing Same-Sex Marriage Cost State Billions, Earned Voters Dirty Looks From Caterers, Seamstresses

  If altruism weren't a good enough reason for California voters to enable same-sex marriage -- and, let's be realistic, altruism isn't a good enough reason for state voters to do anything -- a recent article by Forbes magazine predicts that legalizing same sex marriage nationwide would pump nearly $10 billion into the economy (we're assuming some of them would choose to have their weddings here in California. We're told this is a desirable place to be). The magazine bases its billion-dollar gambi

  June 16, 2009

• Chronic City: California, Cannabis, and Cancer -- Cause for Concern?

  norml.orgCancer cure, or cause?When the bureaucrats over at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) classified marijuana smoke as a carcinogen last Friday, it predictably made headlines worldwide. But how much does the classification really mean, and should medical users and regular old potheads be concerned?The state of California is required by law to publish a list of chemicals "known to cause cancer" (the Proposition 65 list, which contains hundreds of chemica

  June 23, 2009

• SF Weekly Letters

  July 1, 2009

• SFPD: River Rock Burglar Suspects Arrested

   A pair of men police blame for a rash of smash 'n' grab robberies in the Chinatown/North Beach area were arrested early this morning by plainclothes officers. Nicknamed the "River Rock Burglar" because of his continued use of smooth, cobblestone-like rocks to smash store windows, the alleged thieves are accused of at least seven burglaries since early July. Police suspected a man who had been convicted of at least 13 similar "river rock burglaries" during two separate crime sprees over the

  July 23, 2009

• Chronic City: Aptly Named 'Joint Resolution' Succeeds; California Senate Urges Change in Federal Medical Marijuana Rules

  ​By a 23-15 vote, the California State Senate yesterday approved a "joint resolution" urging the federal government to stop Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raids on medical marijuana patients and providers. The Sen. Mark Leno-authored resolution additionally calls for the nation to "create a comprehensive federal medical marijuana policy that ensures safe and legal access to any patient that would benefit from it."Marijuana advocates say recent enforcement activity, including DEA arrests followi

  August 25, 2009

• Bay Area Beats

  September 2, 2009

• Organizers at U.C. Berkeley Want to Make the World's Longest California Roll. Why?

  revjim5000/FlickrThe length to beat: 300 feet.​Yeah, this is how we roll: Food history may be made on Sunday, Nov. 8, when a group in Berkeley attempts to make the world's longest California roll. Eight years ago, a group in Maui set a record for a 300-foot-long roll. The Cal organizers hope to beat the record and "bring the California roll record back to Cal!" Eaters, you will be able to eat the results of the sushi made with crab (or, um, krab), cucumber, and avocado, all wrapped in vin

  October 26, 2009

• So You Say You Want a Constitution. But Are You Ready to Double Down?

  We here at The Snitch have followed the long-running murmurs about a future state constitutional convention with interest. After all, in a state as saturated with moneyed interests and crippled by partisan hackery as California, just what rough beast might be born from a thorough redesign of our methods of governance?What new institutions of government will this get me?​This week the San Francisco Chronicle reported on a new study from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, which f

  November 27, 2009

• Treacherous Day at Sea Captured in Stomach-Churning Photos

  All Photos | Gabor GardonyiClick on the photos for larger versions​For much of his life, Gabor Gardonyi worked as a chef up and down the Pacific coast. Now he's doing it a different way -- as a cook on a tugboat hauling loads from the Pacific Northwest all the way down to the southern tip of California. He's also handy with a camera -- and friends always coo over his photos of porpoises, seals, and gorgeous California sunsets by invariably telling him "You've got the best job in the world!

  December 8, 2009

• Bingo! San Francisco Court Rules Against Gambling-Loving Charities, Disabled Groups.

  Not so fast, Gramps! This ain't Guadalcanal, it's bingo -- there are rules. ​San Francisco's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week did not call the numbers a consortium of  charities and disabled activists were hoping for, quashing an order that had been keeping police from enforcing state bans on electric bingo machines. In doing so, the court ruled that a 2008 state law -- Senate Bill 1369 -- banning certain models of electronic bingo devices does not contravene the Americans With Disa

  December 14, 2009

• California Converts Recycling Funds

  via flickr by net efektRecycling money​If there is one thing California is expert at it is robbing Peter to pay Paul.The California Chamber of Commerce is asking the state to give back the $480 million it took from the Beverage Container Recycling fund as a "loan" to help California cover its bills, according to Courthouse News Service. And apparently this is not the first time the state has swindled these funds. Since 2003, more than $560 million has been transferred from the recycling fund i

  December 28, 2009

• Got Stress? List of Most and Least 'Stressed' Counties Updated -- S.F. Makes Neither.

  Dorothea LangeYes, San Francisco's economic 'stress levels' have been worse...​If you needed a statistical analysis to back up your gut feeling, here it is: San Francisco ain't such a bad place to be. At least that's what the Associated Press' Economic Stress Index reported on Monday. The index -- which is also a somewhat addictive statistically based interactive Web site -- is based upon "scores" ranging from 1 to 100 derived by crunching together a county's unemployment, foreclosure, and ban

  February 9, 2010